Dawn of a New Day
by Krysnel Nicavis
Summary: An evolutionary jump in humanity sets up to change the world forever. minor X Men xover WARN: Implied Slash OneShot. Part of the SunriseSunset Universe.


**Title:** Dawn of a New Day  
**Fandom:** CSI  
**Characters:** Nightshift CSI's  
**Prompt:** #31 – Sunrise  
**Word Count:** 3,128  
**Rating:** K (Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.)  
**Summary:** An evolutionary jump in humanity sets up to change the world forever. (minor X-Men x-over).  
**Author's Notes:** Part one of the Sunrise/Sunset Universe; I came up with this thinking about what would have happened to the world if Magneto from X-Men successfully found a way to make a lot of non-mutants into mutants (not all) – what way he found is entirely up to you. WARNING: Slash implied.  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing …

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They'd been in the lab when it happened. It wasn't instantaneous, but it grew more noticeable as the night wore on.

Grissom had been in his office feeding his pet spider. He'd been admiring his bug collection again and couldn't help but think that it would be incredibly useful for him if only he could understand what they were thinking. If he were able to get to places that a bug could, it would prove exceedingly useful in this line of work. He'd be able to find out things that he wouldn't have found out without their aid.

Catherine was becoming fed up with being unable to predict when she was going to hear something she couldn't handle hearing without some warning – especially where her teenage daughter was concerned. If only she could just have at least five minutes of foresight she'd be able to handle almost anything.

Warrick was in a layout room sifting through evidence that wasn't making sense. He'd gone through everything, ran through every theory, and still came up short. He rifled through crime scene photos and tried to piece together what might have happened. If only he'd been able to rewind reality to go back and see what happened… Of course he'd really prefer to be able to go back and prevent the issue altogether, but that was pushing it even by fantasy standards.

Sara was also in a layout room going through evidence. She couldn't get her mind off the large metal cabinets she'd seen in the opened garage door at the suspect house. They'd been locked, and while they were able to look around a little while the guy was questioned, she'd need a warrant to look through them. However, it was like that Nazi case that happened a while back. Nick and Warrick had been in the same situation where they were faced with a locked freezer. It was the same catch-22: if it were opened without a warrant what ever was found would be inadmissible in court, to get a warrant it needed to be opened. She was sure that if she were able to get a peek at what was inside without opening she'd be able to figure out a way to get a warrant. If only…

Nick had taken over the table in the break room to finish some paperwork he was behind on. He glanced up though the glass walls and spied Greg doing something in the DNA Lab. He tried to keep his mind on his paperwork but with Greg there dancing away to the music he'd insisted on playing he was finding it hard to concentrate. Nick sighed. If only he could know what people were feeling then he would be able to figure out whether or not asking Greg out to a 'more than friends' breakfast would be taken well or not. If he knew how the younger CSI would react, he wouldn't hesitate turning on his Texan charms.

Greg danced to the music that was currently playing through the stereo in the DNA Lab. He was currently doing his own leg work to find out what was in the vic's blood from the case he and Sara were working on together. Doc said it was a poison so here he was analysing a blood sample to determine what poison. He sighed as he mixed the sample with various chemicals and ran it through various pieces of equipment. If only he could have a superpower that enabled him to be able to detect everything on the Periodic Table of Elements and any other chemicals that weren't on it then he'd be able to instantly know what was in the vic's blood.

-o0o-

Shift was slowly coming to a close and the Sun was readying itself to rise into a brand new day. "Hmm, I could do with another fly…" came a small feminine voice. Grissom looked around. There was no one else in his office. "Don't ask me why, but I'd love another fly…" Grissom arched an eyebrow. Where was that voice coming from? If it weren't for the fact that he'd had the operation that allowed his hearing to be near perfect again, he'd have thought he was just imagining things. He stood up and began to search his office.

"Where are you?" he asked, feeling slightly foolish.

"Over here," the feminine voice said. "In the tank." Grissom's brow furrowed as he turned back to the tank that held his most prized spider.

"Excuse me?"

"I would love another fly," it said again. Suddenly unable to speak he silently complied with the spider's request. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied softly before exiting his office in search of a member of his team to agree that he was going crazy. He spotted Catherine sitting at a computer.

"You're not going crazy," she replied as he came up behind her.

"Huh?" She turned around to face him.

"You're not going crazy," she repeated.

"How do you-"

"I don't know," she replied standing and leading him towards the break room – passing the layout rooms with Warrick and Sara in them. "I began to notice something strange going on with myself a little while ago. For the past few hours I've been able to predict what was going to happen around me a few minutes before it happens." Gil opened his mouth to speak. "Yes I'm sure," she snapped without looking at him and he shut his mouth convinced.

Warrick heard what Catherine was saying as she passed his layout room. He was a bit stunned and a bit confused. He was sure he'd heard her wrong. Again, he wished he could turn back time a bit to see if he wasn't hearing things wrong. That's when it happened. Everything around him slowed to a complete stop then slowly began to move backwards. He looked around in shock. Everything was going back to it's original state: he could see Grissom and Catherine walking backwards back down the hall, in the DNA Lab the chemicals Greg had been pouring into a beaker were retreating back into their containers, in the break room Nick's coffee was returning to the coffee pot, in the next layout room, Sara was pacing backwards. Every second that went by the rewinding went faster until it paused again then played. He heard Catherine's conversation and, after deciding that while this was all strange he wasn't crazy, he followed them to the break room.

As Warrick passed Sara's layout room she watched him, Grissom, and Catherine enter the break room. She noticed them begin to talk – bringing Nick into whatever conversation they were having. They sat on the couch and chairs in the room and Sara couldn't see them fully behind the bits of wall that weren't glass. She sighed and concentrated on the area, wishing she could see through the wall like she wished to see through the cabinet doors. She got the shock of her life as the wall melted away and nothing was obstructing her view. Her shock caused her focus to break and the wall to re-emerge. After a few stunned moments, she focused on the wall again and it happened again. She shook her head and walked out of the layout room to the DNA Lab.

Back in the break room, Nick could sense the tension of the three people who walked through the door – and the confusion. He could also sense some other emotions. He turned around to see the three older CSI's enter the room. "Hey guys, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean, Nicky?" Grissom asked.

"You're all tense," he replied. Grissom took this at face value but Catherine began to study him intently. "What's up?" he asked as he took his coffee and claimed a seat at the end of break room couch.

"Something strange is goin' on here, that's what's up," Warrick answered as he took a seat at the opposite end of the couch and Grissom took a chair.

"Strange how?" Nick asked. Warrick looked to where Catherine was now seated in between them. At his friend's gaze Nick suddenly felt a rush of emotions, smaller than the confusion but just as clear. He knew his friend was seriously interested in the woman – heck she was just as interested in him – but the emotions Warrick felt for Catherine suddenly felt tangible to Nick. It was like he could physically feel them moving in the air. He glanced over to Catherine – who had also glanced at Warrick as well and felt the same. He couldn't really explain it. It was as if the emotions being emitted from his colleagues were sending out a signal – like radio waves – and he could act as a receiver and identify every tiny emotion they felt. At the moment the most prominent emotion all three of his colleagues were feeling was confusion… confusion over something that was occurring not only around them but also to them. As Nick focused in on the emotions his friends were feeling, he got a better understanding of why they were feeling them. What he found shocked him – almost as much as it shocked him to realize he was experiencing something equally as strange.

Sara entered the DNA Lab to find Greg systematically picking up beakers, bottles, and other containers and studying them carefully. "What are you doing?"

"I think I'm going crazy," was his reply as he set down a beaker of something she couldn't identify and picked up another.

"And you're just realizing this now?" she jested.

"Ha ha, funny," he placed the beaker down and turned to her as the printer started up. "That's the results of the blood from our vic," he said and walked over to the counter where the blood sample was currently sitting. He picked it up and studied it. "Aconite," he said simply.

"Aconite?"

"Causes tingling and numbness of tongue and mouth; creates a sensation of ants crawling all over the body – I'm sure Nick could tell what that feels like; nausea and vomiting with epigastric pain, laboured breathing, an irregular and weak pulse, cold and clammy skin; the features become bloodless; also brings about giddiness and causes staggering, yet through it all the mind remains clear." He turned from the sample and picked the result sheet out of the printer. "I was right." Sara just stared at him.

"There's no way you could have just guessed what was in it," she said crossing her arms sceptically. "You ran it twice didn't you?"

"Honestly I didn't," he replied. "That's what I meant when I said I was going crazy," he explained. "I'm not sure when it started, but earlier I began to sense things."

"What kind of things?" she asked, very interested now.

"Everything – on an elemental level."

"Elements?"

"Yeah, crazy huh?"

"Like how?"

"I don't know, I just stated being able to tell what things were made out of. I mean, I just happened to glance at a bottle in the cabinet and the word 'iodine' entered my head. I know that sounds like nothing since I've worked here so long that if I can't recognize the iodine bottle I really should be considered insane, but it wasn't the normal kind of recognition." She raised an eyebrow.

"Explain it to me."

"When I looked at it, it was like I could _feel_ the iodine that's in it. I sensed that iodine was in the bottle. I thought I was just imagining things so I started picking things up and examining them to see if I could feel anything else, which is what you found me doing." She looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Can I tell you something and you don't think _I'm_ crazy?" He nodded. "When I was in the layout room, I was thinking about those locked metal cabinets in that guy's garage and how I wished I could take a look in them without having to open them."

"You mean like some sort of x-ray vision?" he asked amused. She glared a bit at him.

"I seen Grissom, Catherine and Warrick go into the break room and start talking with Nick and they sat down behind section of the wall that wasn't glass, you know the plaster trimmed in steel?(1) That's beside the point, I was already frustrated from not being able to see what's in the cabinets and then I got frustrated at the wall and… it disappeared."

"Disappeared?" he glanced over to the break room.

"Not physically disappeared, I mean it was like I could see through it." A look of comprehension crossed his features.

"Something tells me we should go see what they're talking about."

"That's just what I was thinking." They walked out of the DNA Lab together and Greg turned to Sara.

"Oh, and it's not steel," he said gesturing to the trim "It's silver plated copper." They entered the break room and Catherine took one look at them and knew exactly what was going on.

"You too, huh?" Greg opened his mouth ask how she knew but Catherine cut him off. "Don't ask, I don't even understand it." Nick watched the two as they entered and pulled chairs from the table over to where the rest were seated. He could feel the emotions radiating off the two. He knew that Greg felt an attraction towards Sara, but he was surprised to see that it only went as deep as a brother-sister interest. Before he could analyze Greg any more, Grissom called their attention to a news broadcast. Now on the screen was an old man that introduced himself as Magneto. He was a mutant. It turned out that Magneto had created a device that caused the activation of the "X-gene" in all those individuals in the world who were in a position of power – such as politicians. He also used the device to randomly activate the X-gene in many individuals who had jobs in the various legal systems around the world. After Magneto's message finished playing Grissom turned off the television.

"Why do they call those with an active X-gene mutants?" Greg asked. It wasn't anything new to anyone that there were mutants, everyone was aware of the existence. But this was something that had always bothered Greg – regardless of whether or not he now actually was one. "I mean, I get the fact that the active X-gene causes the individual to have abilities that, by evolutionary standards, is thousands – if not millions – of years ahead of the current majority of the human race. But why use such a derogatory term?"

"It's common for humans to want to push down and trod on something they don't understand or are afraid of," Grissom replied. The six members of the Las Vegas nightshift filed out of the room and readied themselves to go home as their shift was now over. Greg and Nick were the last two in the locker room and Nick took the opportunity to analyze Greg's emotions again.

"You want to talk about it?" Nick asked as he tied his shoes. Greg sighed as he sat on the bench.

"I don't know," he said as he raked a hand through his un-gelled hair. "It's just that I've been studying the X-gene for a long time."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's a little side project I've been working on," Greg explained. "You see, it was originally thought that males were the 'carriers' of the X-gene and would pass it onto their children. But that would mean that the X-gene was limited to the Y chromosome, and we both know there are definitely female mutants out there." Nick nodded as he finished with his shoes. "What I've come to find, with the help of Dr. Hank McCoy in North Salem, New York, is that while it is true that most Y chromosomes carry the X-gene in it, it is possible for the X chromosome to also carry it."

"How?"

"Well, as you know, when a man's sperm is formed, the DNA of said man is split in half." Nick nodded his understanding, blushing slightly and Greg continued. "Now, every half strand of DNA isn't exactly the same. Dr. McCoy and I have discovered that in some cases after the split of the two chromosomes, the X chromosome posses the X-gene. This also explains why not all males have the X-gene."

"So it's possible to _not_ have the X-gene?" Nick asked incredulously.

"Historically speaking, at one point _no one_ had the X-gene. It's the result of an evolutionary mutation," Greg explained. "However, nowadays, it's becoming more and more common. Assuming people don't start practicing gene-selective reproduction, it's foreseeable that the entire world population will eventually possess the X-gene."

"Wait, wait. If not everyone has an X-gene, how is it possible to make all the people he'd said into mutants. After all, as common as it's becoming, they all can't have it."

"That's true. Dr. McCoy once told me a theory of his. He thought that it could be possible to locate the gene that would eventually evolve into the X-gene and force it to mutate, _giving_ the person an X-gene."

"So according to that theory, Magneto would have had to force the genetic code of all those without an X-gene to create one?" Nick observed.

"Yeah. I guess it could explain why the number of people who were changed was so limited. I mean he could have forced the gene evolution of the politicians then activated them."

"Let me guess, you're implying that those who aren't politicians that are now mutants were born with the X-gene?"

"Actually, yeah," Greg stated.

"Okay. I think I understand." Nick looked at the other man and focused on the emotions he was emitting. Sifting through the confusion of the situation and outrage of societal views of mutants, he was able to find the deeper feelings that were floating around underneath. When he found the one he was looking for, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know. He took a few moments to think it through. He backed away from it without identifying it and decided to take a shot in the dark. "You want to have breakfast with me?"

"Breakfast?"

"Yeah. Just, um, you and me?"

"Why Mr. Stokes, are you asking me on a date?" Greg asked with a grin. Nick blushed a bit and grinned as well.

"Only if the answer is yes." Greg made it look like he was debating the question in his head, but even without trying Nick could sense the answer.

"I think I'd like that," Greg answered. The two exited the Crime Lab just as the sun was peaking over the horizon – its' rays shining down on a brand new world.

- 30 -

THE END

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**Footnotes:**

(1) The steel worked for the storyline.

**A/N:** well, this certainly is the longest one-shot I've written in a while.

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_released__: December 4, 2007  
updated: July 27, 2010_


End file.
